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Unified Social Credit Identifier: 255 Million Inquiries, 188 Million Entities, A Decade of Transformation

Knowaco Editor

Knowaco Editor

— 2 min read
Unified Social Credit Identifier: 255 Million Inquiries, 188 Million Entities, A Decade of Transformation
Photo by ダモ リ / Unsplash

The Unified Social Credit Identifier (USCI, or Unified Social Credit Code / USCC ), issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), uniquely identifies companies and other organizations in China. It was used as an identifier in various fields, including administration, regulation, and enforcement.

Background of USCI / USCC's application in China

The USCI consists of 18 numbers and uppercase letters (excluding I, O, Z, S, V), typically including the registration management department code, institution category code, registration management authority's administrative division code, main body identifier code (organization code), and check digit.

Before the USCI was applied, companies had to apply separately to the market regulation, quality inspection, and tax departments for THREE licenses, including a business license, organization code certificate, and tax registration certificate, at the time of establishment. This process was cumbersome, time-consuming, and labor-intensive.

In 2014, some provinces and cities began to pilot the "THREE-IN-ONE" reform, merging multiple required licenses into a single one, i.e., the USCI.

In May 2015, the State Council's executive meeting determined to implement the USCI nationally.

The application of the USCI for businesses has simplified the registration process and simultaneously increased the transparency and efficiency of information exchange between different government departments.

As of the end of 2023, around then years after the implementation of the USCI, please see the highlights as below:

255 Million

The data has been widely applied in fields such as tax, banking, and insurance, supporting information sharing among more than 30 government departments and providing information services to the public. In 2023, the inquiry volume was approximately 255 million times.

188 Million

As of December 1, 2023, the USCI database contained over 188 million legal entities and organizations, a 12.14% increase from 2022.

85.38 Million

The eastern provinces have the highest number of institutions, approximately 85.38 million, accounting for 45.33% of the national total. The central, western, and northeastern regions account for 23.93%, 24.42%, and 6.32%, respectively.

9.54%

The provinces with the largest total number of institutions are Guangdong, Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Henan, accounting for 9.54%, 7.71%, 7.43%, 5.85%, and 5.65% of the national total respectively.

35

The data covers 35 types of institutions including government agencies, enterprises and institutions, social organizations, and various judicial, religious, cultural, and rural organizations at all levels in China, involving 19 registration management departments.

1/10000

Through the establishment of a verification and error correction mechanism, the overall rate of duplicate and error codes in the Unified Social Credit Identifier has been reduced year by year, falling below one in ten thousand by the end of 2023.

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